ASHEVILLE – The Campaign for Southern Equality has filed a federal Title IX complaint against the North Carolina State Board of Education and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, alleging new state laws are resulting in systemic marginalization of LGBTQ+ students.
The Asheville-based nonprofit filed the complaint Jan. 30 with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Justice. The 113-page filing includes “accounts of harm and hostility” from 24 North Carolina students, parents, teachers and administrators.
Title IX is the federal law that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools.
The complaint is the latest action from the Campaign for Southern Equality against SB 49 — known as both the “Parents’ Bill of Rights” or, colloquially, North Carolina’s version of the “Don’t Say Gay” law — and HB 574, which prohibits participation in school sports by transgender athletes.
SB 49 includes requirements that parents must be notified before their child uses a different name or pronoun in school, which critics of the law say will result in students being “outed” to parents, rather than allowing them to come out on their own terms.